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BREAKING – New Romney campaign ad, “No Evidence” -- Male narrator: “When a President doesn’t tell the truth, how can we trust him to lead? The Obama outsourcing attacks: ‘misleading, unfair and untrue.’ There was ‘no evidence’ that Mitt Romney shipped jobs overseas. Candidate Obama lied about Hillary Clinton.”

Jumps to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton, in Cincinnati on Feb. 23, 2008: “So shame on you, Barack Obama. [It is time you ran a campaign consistent with your messages in public. That’s what I expect from you.]” Male narrator: “But America expects more from a president. Obama’s dishonest campaign: Another reason America has lost confidence in Barack Obama.” YouTubehttp://bit.ly/OzLjLD

VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY -- fishing and joking again after bouncing after from his heart transplant in March – and his wife, Lynne, this evening host a mega-fund-raiser for Mitt Romney at their home in Jackson, Wyo., where they’re spending the summer. Playbook has a copy of the red, white and blue invitation, which spells out a four-tier event. The first three parts are at Teton Pines Country Club in Jackson Hole, an Arnold-Palmer created golf, tennis and dining resort that calls itself “Western-Elegant”:

--5 p.m., Host Committee Reception: “Contribute or raise $50,000 couple. ($50,000 contribution includes status as a Romney Victory Founding Member and preferred status at the Republican National Convention.)”

--7 p.m., Private Dinner: “Home of Former Vice President Dick and Lynne Cheney; address provided upon RSVP. Contribute $30,000 per person or couple.”

--THE OTHER HOSTS are Dick and Maggie Scarlett, who held a fund-raiser for Romney at their Jackson Hole home in Aug. 2011; and Allan and Frances Tessler, also of Jackson Hole. Allan Tessler is a businessman, philanthropist and Republican donor.

TIME cover, “ONE A DAY: Every day, one U.S. soldier commits suicide. Why the military can’t defeat its most insidious enemy,” by Mark Thompson and Nancy Gibbs: “More U.S. military personnel have died by suicide since the war in Afghanistan began than have died fighting there. The rate jumped 80% from 2004 to 2008, and while it leveled off in 2010 and 2011, it has soared 18% this year. Suicide has passed road accidents as the leading non­combat cause of death among U.S. troop. … Nearly a third of the suicides from 2005 to 2010 were among troops who had never deployed; 43% had deployed only once. Only 8.5% had deployed three or four times.

“Enlisted service members are more likely to kill themselves than officers, and 18-to-24-year-olds more likely than older troops. … [N]early 95% of cases are male. A majority are married. No program, outreach or initiative has worked against the surge in Army suicides, and no one knows why nothing works. The Pentagon allocates about $2 billion—nearly 4% of its $53 billion annual medical bill—to mental health. That simply isn’t enough money, says Peter Chiarelli, who recently retired as the Army’s second in command. And those who seek help are often treated too briefly.”

FIRST LOOK: Crossroads GPS will be out this morning with an ad called “Tried,” a title that reflects the more-in-sorrow-than-in-anger approach to criticizing President Obama that has worked well with focus groups, where voters still have residual affection for him as a person. “Tried” is part of an $8 million run of Crossroads ads based on last Friday’s bad jobs report, with the spots airing in nine swing states: Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, North Carolina, New Hampshire, Nevada, Ohio and Virginia.

The 30-second spot begins with a clip of John Harwood saying on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday: “The WEAKEST job-adding quarter in two years.” Then a female narrator picks up: “It wasn’t supposed to BE this way: Over three years with crushing unemployment. American manufacturing: shrinking again. President Obama’s plan: Spend more. He’s ADDED 4 billion in debt – every day. The economy’s slowing, but our debt keeps growing. Tell him: For real job growth, cut the debt. Support the New Majority Agenda, at newmajorityagenda.org,” which clicks through to Crossroads GPS. YouTube http://bit.ly/NiVTa9

ELEVATOR FODDER – USA Today lead story, “Romney’s donors: Friends in finance -- 25% of fundraisers from banking pool,” by Fredreka Schouten and Gregory Korte: “More than 300 people — or nearly a quarter of the roughly 1,200 individuals USA TODAY has identified as Romney fundraisers — come from the world of finance, more than any other sector. More than a dozen come from the ranks of a single company, investment powerhouse Goldman Sachs, which spent nearly $4.4 million to influence Washington policymakers last year. By comparison, 77 of Obama's 532 fundraisers work in the securities and investment industry, according to a tally by the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics.” http://usat.ly/POAHgF

FISCAL CLIFF NOTES -- “Over 150 university presidents from 50 states urge president, Congress to prevent budget sequester, reach balanced, long-term agreement” – AAU/APLU release: “Presidents and chancellors of 152 leading universities from each of the 50 states and the District of Columbia [yesterday] urged President Obama and bipartisan congressional leaders to prevent deep across-the-board spending cuts due to take effect in January as a result of budget sequestration… The presidents and chancellors who signed the letter represent a diverse cross-section of the nation’s university community, including such institutions as Harvard University, The Ohio State University, Prairie View A&M University, South Dakota State University, Stanford University, and the University of Florida.

“All of the university leaders that signed the letter belong to the Association of American Universities (AAU) and/or the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). AAU is a nonprofit association of leading private and public research universities. APLU is a research and advocacy organization of public research universities, land-grant institutions, and state university systems.” Read the letter. 6-page PDF http://bit.ly/NzIXi6

** A message from USA Network’s “Political Animals”: POLITICAL ANIMALS, a limited series event starring three-time Academy Award® nominee Sigourney Weaver, is a provocative look at a fractured family at the heart of American politics. Don’t miss the premiere Sunday, July 15th, at 10/9c on USA Network. For more, visit http://bit.ly/JZBgTJ. **

SEN. SCOTT BROWN and his wife, ABC7’s Gail Huff Brown, will celebrate their 26th anniversary tonight with dinner in Massachusetts.

BEING THERE -- POLITICO’s Juana Summers: “While the somewhat hostile reception is likely to dominate the cable news cycle and be used as evidence by Romney’s detractors that he’s out of touch with blacks and working-class Americans, the majority of the Republican’s talking points received polite applause, even in a period of heightened racial tension after the U.S. House recently voted to hold in contempt the country’s first black attorney general.” http://politi.co/Mmrng9

PELOSI: ROMNEY WANTED TO BE BOOED -- Seung Min Kim reports that House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told Bloomberg TV: “I think it was a calculated move on his part to get booed at the NAACP convention.”

--The chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.), told a handful of reporters in Washington: “I felt terrible when the booing started, but I also believe … staff members who vetted that speech or inserted some of the things that I heard, they should be fired … I mean, how in the world would you stand up in front of the NAACP and say that you oppose Obamacare?”

--But Cleaver at least gave Romney an “A” for effort: “You know, they call the members of the NAACP African-Americans and the last word is Americans … So they deserve to hear what the presidential candidates are going to say even if they are Republican. And so I give him an A for that.”

HAPPENING TONIGHT: POLITICO’S annual list of rising political players, “Top 50 Politicos to Watch,” will be unveiled tonight at a star-studded celebration at the Longview Gallery. Check tomorrow’s edition of print POLITICO – a glossy magazine -- for the full list of 50 rising politicos. Questions to politicoevents@politico.com

SPORTS BLINK – “ESPN Re-Signs NFL Experts Adam Schefter, John Clayton, Mel Kiper, Jr., and Ed Werder” – ESPN release: “ESPN has signed four of its top National Football League experts and most visible on-air personalities to multi-year contract extensions: insider Adam Schefter, senior writer John Clayton, NFL Draft expert Mel Kiper, Jr., and reporter Ed Werder. ‘Adam, John, Mel and Ed are at the forefront of how we cover the NFL every day of the year across multiple networks and platforms,’ said Mark Gross, ESPN senior vice president and executive producer, production. …

“Schefter … joined ESPN in August 2009 and … has … established a Twitter following of more than 1.6 million. Clayton joined ESPN in August 1995 as a senior NFL writer and commentator. … Kiper has served as expert analyst for ESPN’s annual NFL Draft coverage since 1984 … Werder has served as ESPN’s Dallas-based bureau reporter since September 1998. As part of his new deal, Werder will expand his responsibilities beyond on-air NFL reporting – most notably on the Dallas Cowboys –… to include an insider role. With Clayton, Schefter and Chris Mortensen, the addition of Werder to the insider ranks gives ESPN four of the league’s most respected sources of league-wide NFL news and information.”

--“LeBron James Takes Home Three ESPYS; Brittney Griner Wins for Both Best Female Athlete and Best Female College Athlete, Shaun White Wins his Fifth Consecutive ESPY for Best Male Action Sports Athlete and Drew Brees Wins for Best Record-Breaking Performance” -- ESPN release: “The biggest stars from the worlds of sports and entertainment gathered in downtown Los Angeles at the Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE … to celebrate the best sports stories of the year at The 2012 ESPYS Presented by Capital One, hosted by Rob Riggle. … The ESPYS honor ESPN’s commitment to The V Foundation for Cancer Research, a partnership launched with the late Jim Valvano at the inaugural ESPYs in 1993. …

** A message from USA Network’s “Political Animals”: A USA Network limited series event, POLITICAL ANIMALS pulls back the curtain on a former first family as they navigate the complex world of American politics.

In her first television series regular role, three-time Academy Award® nominee Sigourney Weaver stars as Secretary of State and former First Lady Elaine Barrish Hammond. In the wake of a divorce from her ex-president husband Bud Hammond (Ciarán Hinds), Barrish struggles to keep her family together while masterfully dealing with international crises and a hungry DC journalist (Carla Gugino) who seems bent on destroying her.

Readers' Comments (2)

According to the fact checkers, it is Romney who is the liar. The cumulative numbers tell the tale.

For instance, Politifact rated 9% of Romney's statements that they checked as "Pants on Fire", as opposed to 1% for Obama. Overall, Romney got one of the False ratings (Mostly False, False, Pants on Fire) 41% of the time, and only got one of the True ratings (Mostly True, True) 31% of the time. The rest were rated "Half True". In contrast, Obama got one of the False ratings 27% of the time, and one of the true ratings 46% of the time. Romney's statements were more often False than True, and Obama's were more often True than False. Both by large margins.

The Washington Post "The Fact Checker" that the Romney ads quote (somewhat misleadingly) recently reported that they had given an average of more Pinocchios (on a scale of 0 to 4) per ad/claim to Romney than to Obama over the last year. More broadly, they have also given an average of more Pinocchios to the Republicans than to the Democrats over the last year, but they note that a lot of the Republican statements came from the campaigns for the nomination. In other words, the Republicans not only lie about Obama and the Democrats, they lie - a lot - about other Republicans.

When you look at the "outside" groups, it gets even more stark. While the more pro-Democratic organizations are breaking about even, the pro-Republican ones have overwhelmingly gotten the False ratings, and most have not managed to get so much as a single True rating. Again, we should note that some of those false statements came from the Primary campaigns, when they were making the false statements about other Republicans rather than about Obama.

Jor. Check out the credentials of the folks on Politifact. No lawyers, no statisticians, nothing but journalists. I actually did a google search of Bill Adair and couldn't find any academic credentials. Granted, I didn't look too hard, but a 6 minute search should glean 'something'. What I did find was quite a few articles challenging Politifact's process, specifically their lack of statistical methods to evaluate candidate promises. All that said, there are a few obama statistics that are hard to argue. Unemployment under his stewardship has been horrible. Both the debt and deficit unspeakable. Zero votes for the two budgets he has proposed. Dude...ZERO! Not one Democrat voted for his budget. ZERO budgets passed by the dem controlled Senate since before his election. ZERO! How about quashing efforts to gain information on Fast and Furious. If the administration had nothing to do with it, how can they exert executive privilege? Jor, can you imagine the hue and cry from journalists if any Republican had that record?

PS Jor. I googled myself. Of course, I knew what I was looking for, but in less than 30 seconds I had my job history, academic and military record, skills, city/state of residence, etc. How come I can't get that detail on the 'journalists' from Politifact?